"TOWER HEIST": Eddie Murphy steals the show in the comeback of the year

Murphy steals the show

With ‘Tower Heist,’ Eddie Murphy makes a comeback in the most enjoyable movie of the year

By Carl Kozlowski 11/03/2011

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There are few actors in Hollywood history whose careers have been as utterly confounding as Eddie Murphy’s. Exploding onto the big screen from a three-year stint as one of the most wildly talented people ever to emerge from “Saturday Night Live,” Murphy made three major comedy classics right off the bat in “48 Hours,” “Trading Places” and “Beverly Hills Cop” before apparently deciding to take nearly any paycheck that came along.

In the nearly three decades since 1984’s original “Beverly Hills Cop,” Murphy has made three great movies — “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor” and “Dreamgirls” — in between flops and the occasional bland family film. There is almost no one who has disappointed his fans as much, yet Murphy had so much magic initially that fans have always held out hope that somehow he would get his mojo back.

Well, it looks like he’s finally found it.

In the new comedy caper “Tower Heist,” Murphy plays Slide, a comically streetwise, trash-talking thug who gets hired by an unlikely trio of cowardly losers to guide them through an elaborate robbery.

That trio — played by Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck and Michael Pena — are coworkers in America’s most extravagant residential tower, and they are out to get revenge on a Bernie Madoff-style investment guru Arthur Shaw, played by Alan Alda, who occupies the building’s penthouse and lost the building staff’s pension plan when his Ponzi scheme collapsed in ruins.

Teaming up with a building maid (Gabourney Sidibe of “Precious” fame) who has a surprising set of skills and a forlorn middle-aged resident (Matthew Broderick), who’s about to lose his apartment in foreclosure, the hapless half-dozen embark on an absolutely brilliant and thoroughly hilarious plan that takes a turn so wildly original that “Tower Heist” should become an instant classic.

To give away any aspect of the plot would be a crime in itself. The expertly written film comes from Jeff Nathanson (“Catch Me If You Can”) and Ted Griffin (“Ocean’s Eleven”), two of the best caper writers working.

Their script not only combines an ingenious crime, funny dialogue and well-rounded characters, but also hits a bull’s-eye for timeliness by tapping into the frustrations ordinary Americans feel against the Wall Street con artist. Shaw indisputably deserves to go down hard, his fall adding to the satisfaction of seeing a team of average Joes catching a very big break as Robin Hoods of our time.

What I can mention is that the cast goes even deeper, with Tea Leoni as the tough-talking yet sexy FBI agent who’s on the chase against both Josh and the heroic heist team, and Judd Hirsch as Stiller’s meddling boss. While Stiller plays his lovable loser persona to perfection, the movie is stolen by Broderick and Murphy in their best roles in years, with huge bonus points for the fact that Broderick spends his best scenes engaged in peril with a red Ferrari that’s a dead ringer for the beauty he drove in his greatest role ever as Ferris Bueller.

Director Brett Ratner (the “Rush Hour” trilogy, “X-Men 3”) often is derided as a lowest-common-denominator hack, but a movie like “Tower Heist” deserves to rebrand his reputation as a rare director who can keep the bouncy, fun spirit of 1980s films alive.

But it’s Murphy, however, who brings the film to its most vibrant life, as he mixes jive-talking menace in the first half with smooth-talking de-ception in the second in a role that taps into every one of his strengths.

Combined with the fact that he helped organize the whole film as one of its executive producers and is generating buzz for his upcoming stint as next February’s Oscars host, perhaps there’s hope that he might finally feel the hunger necessary to achieve greatness again and maintain it this time. At the bare minimum, “Tower Heist” is one hell of a first step to redemption.

STARS BRIGHTER THAN THEIR FILMS: "IN TIME" AND "MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE"

 

 

 

Time to shine

Performances by Elizabeth Olsen and Justin Timberlake carry ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ and ‘In Time’

By Carl Kozlowski 10/27/2011

Sometimes people you’d least expect to be movie stars surprise you.

In the case of Elizabeth Olsen, for instance, it would be easy to scoff at Olsen as the coattail-riding little sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of “Full House” fame.

Justin Timberlake is another example of this. Rather than a leading man, people still probably associate Timberlake with the cheesy boy-band N’Sync.

But both Olsen and Timberlake have the skills for stardom, evidenced by their turns in the new films “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “In Time,” respectively.

“Martha” was a Sundance sensation this year, and it’s easy to see why America’s most pretentious film festival would warm to this tale of ambiguous terror and paranoia. The film follows the story of a woman in her 20s named Martha who is adrift. In the opening moments, the film shows Martha escaping a cult in the backwoods of upstate New York.

That Manson Family-like community is headed by a creepily charismatic leader named Patrick (John Hawkes), who projects a fatherly vibe to wayward young men and women. But he quickly disorients members of his commune by renaming them. Thus, Martha became known as Marcy May before being drugged, raped and manipulated into becoming part of an ever-growing harem for Patrick and the other young men. “Marlene,” as it turns out, is the name that all women at the commune must use when they answer phone calls from outsiders.

Martha races to get away to her estranged sister and brother-in-law’s lake house three hours away, but they quickly notice her abnormal behavior. Martha leaps naked into their highly public lake, nonchalantly walks in on them while having sex and spends hours at a time nervously staring into space without explaining that she’s living in abject fear of being found by the cult members, whom she knows are capable of unspeakable violence.

Writer-director Sean Durkin expertly weaves Martha’s two worlds together, seamlessly blending her present reality and past memories. This not only creates an almost unbearable tension, as viewers are drawn into her paranoia, but spotlights

the amazing acting range of Olsen in a performance that has many considering her likely to be nominated for an Oscar.

“Martha” is not a fun film to watch, but for those seeking scares delivered in intelligent fashion, it definitely delivers — at least until the film’s surprising and maddening final moment.

Meanwhile, “In Time” features Timberlake as Will Salas, who lives in a near-future Los Angeles in which immortality has become attainable, but with a twist: Since the planet couldn’t sustain everyone living forever while new babies keep arriving, every person has a clock embedded in them that allows just 25 years of life.

The bigger problem is that all economic transactions have shifted away from currency to time-based transactions. For instance, a pay-phone call will cost a minute of your life rather than 50 cents and a vintage luxury car will cost 59 years. But how does one accrue 59 years when they’re only supposed to have 25?

The film reveals that the upper classes of this future society are gifted with extra time and might have even well over 1,000 years available to them. But if someone winds up with seemingly too much time, or is caught either stealing it from others or giving it away, they can be marked for death by governmental enforcers known as Timekeepers.

As the film opens, Salas’ mother runs out of time just as she falls into his arms for a long-sought reunion. So when Salas is gifted with 106 years from a man who decides to “time out” and die, he uses his new energy to cross from the Los Angeles ghetto into a Century City-style area known as New Greenwich and take the entire power structure down, kidnapping the daughter (Amanda Seyfried) of a time-wealthy man as leverage.

Timberlake has the charisma and acting chops to be a bona fide movie star. In his first action role, he dresses well and kicks ass with aplomb, but the story by writer-director Andrew Niccol (who did both duties on the far-superior film “Gattaca” and wrote “The Truman Show”) devolves into too many scenes of Timberlake running from the Timekeepers. Midway through the movie you’ll be wondering how you could have made better use of your time.

"Paranormal Activity 3": The third time's the charm, and "Margin Call": Truly Voodoo Economics

Doubly devilish

‘Margin Call’ and ‘Paranormal Activity 3’ feature two kinds of terror

By Carl Kozlowski 10/20/2011

In an era when far too many Hollywood movies are high-budget train wrecks heavy on spectacle and light on relevance, two films opening this week do a terrific job of demonstrating that good storytelling always results in an entertaining experience.

Both films — all-star “Margin Call” and micro-budget “Paranormal Activity 3” — offer vastly different scares, with “Margin” providing a thinly fictionalized look at how the 2008 financial meltdown began, and “PA3” serving up old-fashioned, bump-in-the-dark terror with ingenious aplomb.

“Margin Call” leaps right into its complex tale of financial chicanery and double-crossing gamesmanship, with Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto, Spock in the “Star Trek” movie reboot and this film’s executive producer) sees the cold-hearted human resources director of his Wall Street firm giving the ax to 80 percent of his colleagues in one day. The problem is one of the dumped employees was Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), who slips Sullivan a flash drive containing shocking information and tells him to “be careful.”

Sullivan camps out at his desk to examine the disk and discovers that the firm’s massive investments in mortgage securities are starting to go belly-up. If the trend continues, the toxic assets would be worth more in losses than the firm itself is worth, meaning the firm, a behemoth not unlike Goldman Sachs, would be destroyed.

In a heavily verbose style reminiscent of the early ’90s acting classic “Glengarry Glen Ross,” a tense night filled with plotting over how to handle the situation — whether to sell off all the assets, even if that involves lying to investors, or face the music and watch the company die — begins.

The magic of first-time feature writer-director J.C. Chandor’s script lies in the fact that he not only presents both sides of the dilemma in a compelling fashion, but also explains the arcane world of high-finance in ways that anyone could follow and understand.

The fact that the film has such a stellar cast — Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany and TV star Penn Badgely — doing great work adds to the film’s effectiveness.

Meanwhile, “Paranormal Activity 3” brings the scary back to theaters with the series’ most entertaining installment yet. The first film was shot for $15,000 and focused almost entirely on a couple named Katie and Micah, who were terrified by noises in their house and decided to set up video cameras at night to see what was really going on.

The original’s biggest scares came in its final minutes. “PA2” ups the ante tremendously by showing Katie’s relatives beset by boogeymen and rigging their house with seemingly countless security cameras as a result. While the filmmakers made sport out of the high technology, “PA3” flips the script brilliantly by taking viewers back to 1988, when Katie started experiencing ghostly presences as a young child and her mom’s boyfriend — a wedding videographer — filmed the mysterious activity with dated equipment.

The best twist in “PA3” comes when the boyfriend’s business partner rigs a camera to the base of a rotating fan, providing the disorienting effect of a constant pan shot in some sequences. This works because the rhythmic motion lulls viewers into a sense of complacency, yet drives up the tension each time the camera moves back and forth. The audience is anticipating a big scare, which the filmmakers dole out with expert precision.

In addition, the “PA” team’s increasing confidence means that they now relish making the audience laugh with several red herring moments. The business partner and a babysitter both attempt funny business with the camera, thinking it will only

affect the videographer, but just when viewers think these characters are comic relief, the unseen boogeyman unleashes terror on both of them.

Seen with a packed house of fans at the Cinerama Dome Tuesday night, “PA3” proved itself to be a total crowd-pleaser. Yet, while it expertly mixes big scares with big laughs, milking the tension of unseen terror with moments of spectacular disarray, its darkest revelations unfortunately border on being exploitative, drawing terror from endangering very young girls. But as its final revelation is delivered with deliciously evil glee, the audience clearly didn’t mind, and neither will anyone looking for a good time at the movies. n

'BLACKTHORN": What if Butch Cassidy Had Lived?

 

 

Man of mystery

‘Blackthorn’ offers a look at Butch Cassidy if he had lived into old age

By Carl Kozlowski 10/13/2011

There are certain people whose exploits or accomplishments are so colorful they pass straight from reality into the realm of legend. Often, those legendary figures are outlaws who disappeared before they could be brought to justice. Consider D.B. Cooper, who parachuted out of a plane while carrying a fortune in stolen cash, or the men thought to have survived escape attempts from Alcatraz.

Among these people, Butch Cassidy holds an even greater place in the ranks of great American outlaws whose ultimate fate is uncertain. The story goes that he and his partner in crime, the Sundance Kid, were killed in an ambush by Bolivian soldiers in 1908, but their bodies were never definitively returned to America.

Many have wondered if Butch and Sundance survived that battle, and the new Western film “Blackthorn” offers a captivating take on what might have happened if Cassidy managed to live into old age. Played by veteran actor/

playwright Sam Shepard as an old and bearded hombre hiding out deep in the Bolivian countryside under the alias James Blackthorn, this film’s Cassidy is a man who craves a shot at redemption on a personal level after learning for the first time that he has a now-grown son in San Francisco.

The film is framed by Blackthorn’s letters to his son, which he reads in voiceover as he offers his unique life philosophies to smooth the way for their hoped-for meeting. While there are also a few flashbacks that reveal what happened after Butch and Sundance survived, most of the film takes place in the stark present that Blackthorn faces as he tries to survive coming out of hiding.

As he prepares for his journey back home, Blackthorn encounters Eduardo Apodaca, a younger Latino outlaw who has just robbed a train after studying Cassidy’s famed techniques. The two first meet after Eduardo’s horse is killed in a gun battle he instigated against Blackthorn, forcing the pair to travel together.

But another odd circumstance really bonds the unlikely pair together: Eduardo has stolen $50,000 from what he describes as the rich owners of his company. Blackthorn happily thinks he’s found a new partner in crime but slowly realizes Eduardo’s story doesn’t add up, leading to a stunning series of consequences and betrayals between the men.

“Blackthorn” works wonders on a limited budget, bringing the West to vibrant life under the crisp direction of Mateo Gil and an elegantly thoughtful yet action-packed script by Miguel Barros.

But aside from Shepard’s award-worthy, career-capping take on Cassidy’s alter ego, the real star of the film is cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia, who brings the film’s many Bolivian locations to wondrous life while also helping frame shot after shot with angles that have rarely been seen before.

Offering Western fans a beautifully shot, character-driven take on one of the West’s most mysterious yet charismatic figures, “Blackthorn” is well worth a viewing for those who miss seeing the overlooked genre on the big screen. Its pleasures, however, are strong enough to be appreciated by fans of intelligent cinema, no matter the genre.

"FOOTLOOSE" REVIEW: WHY NOT A REMAKE???

Movie buffs freaked when word leaked that Paramount Pictures was remaking its 1984 youth classic ‘Footloose,’ as if the studio was tampering with a sacred text. Or remaking ‘The Ten Commandments,’ God forbid. (Oh, wait. ‘The Ten Commandments’ with Charlton Heston was itself a remake – done over by the same director, Cecil B. DeMille).
Sure, the first ‘Footloose’ was fun, but it really was magic for two reasons: a terrific soundtrack built around Kenny Loggins’ title song that sounds every bit as slamming today as it did 27 years ago, and the star-making turn by Kevin Bacon, one of the most enduring actors of the modern era. But aside from that (and OK, Chris Penn’s performance – particularly while learning how to dance – was endearing as well), the movie was MTV-style cheese.


So why make a new one? Frankly, why not? With its tale of a teenage outsider rallying his peers to stand up for their fundamental right to the joyous free expression of dance, the core story has an undeniable appeal that should hold up for generations. Unfortunately, the young audiences that should still embrace the original don’t seem to keep anything from the ‘80s alive outside of John Hughes’ movies.

The new ‘Footloose’ takes a more realistic and gritty tone between its dynamic dance numbers. Directed by Craig Brewer, who displayed a unique vision with his debut ‘Hustle and Flow’ before slipping with the odd ‘Black Snake Moan,’ the new ‘Footloose’ gets off to a riveting start with a wild party that made me wonder just how much the filmmakers could get away with in a teen flick.
That is, until a carload of drunken teens crashes in a stark and strongly shot sequence. As a result, the town council of fictional Bomont – where the kids were from – take dramatic action. The council decides to ban all forms of teen dancing and impose a strict curfew, in response to a demand from the town’s pastor, Rev. Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid).
But when a new guy in town, Ren McCormick (new discovery Kenny Wormald capably filling Bacon’s large dancing shoes) leads a teen rebellion alongside the preacher’s surviving daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough), the stage is set for a battle between interpreting the Bible’s directives on dancing from a punitive vs. joy-filled perspective. And yes, along the way, Ren also gets to teach a good-natured redneck named Willard (Miles Teller in Penn’s famous role).
Right off the bat it’s clear Brewer is crafting a better movie than the original. The opening party scene burns with a debauched intensity, the car crash hits home and the reverend is a somewhat sympathetic soul whose son was among the young lives wasted in the crash. Brewer’s take on Quaid’s reverend is contrasts with the fire and-brimstone monster that John Lithgow laughably played in the original.
In fact, it’s that portrayal by Quaid, with Andie McDowell expertly replacing Dianne Wiest’s uptight portrayal of the preacher’s wife in the original, that is a perfect example of why the new ‘Footloose’ is not only a good flick in its own right, but downright refreshing in many ways. One might expect Christianity would be portrayed even more stupidly with the advancement of time and loosened onscreen morality, but this movie continues this year’s exciting trend in showing Christians as real people, not morons. Give Quaid a medal for doing double good for the cause between ‘Footloose’ and his turn as the faith-filled father in ‘Soul Surfer’ last spring.
While the dancing in a couple of scenes is definitely raunchier than before, it’s clearly drawn as coming from a yearning to break free against oppressive rules. When (SPOILER ALERT, but are you really surprised?) the kids are allowed to dance again with approval from the pastor, the slutty moves of Hough and company shift 180 degrees toward a positive and fun depiction of dance as a celebration of the human spirit.
There are also great anti-drug and anti-promiscuity messages dropped in, and in keeping with the film’s more realistic tone, the acting across the board is solid. Time will tell if Wormald develops a strong screen career, but he’s great in the lead even if he ultimately doesn’t catch the same lightning in a bottle than Bacon did. Plus, Teller as Willard is funny and charming enough to have a real future. Hough, meanwhile, is a true discovery – even though anyone can figure that a two-time ‘Dancing with the Stars’ champ knows how to tear up a dance floor, she is a surprisingly terrific actress as well, whether playing up her sex appearl or flashing impressive dramatic chops.
I’m just as disgusted as anyone else that some schmuck is trying to remake ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and I’m mortified at most of the other reboots currently being discussed. But this is one case where a simple, well told American story is a welcome sight – even if it’s being told a second time.